RC Components And Ford Partner For The 2018 Mustang Cobra Jet

Next season, the Ford Motor Company’s 2018 Mustang Cobra Jet — which will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the revered factory-built racecar — will burn rubber at drag strips across the country, and for the first time it will do so on RC Components’ sleek Torx series one-piece forged wheels.

In October, Ford and RC Components finalized an agreement for the Bowling Green, Kentucky-based manufacturer to supply custom 50th anniversary Cobra Jet-emblazoned wheels for each of the limited run of 68 cars that it plans to produce for the 2018-19 model year. Based on RC’s familiar Comp Series Torx front and rear wheel, the polished aluminum wheel features the throwback Cobra Jet logo, along with the 1968 and 2018 dates — signifying the first and the fiftieth year of the iconic racing machine.

For RC Components, which already owns considerable marketshare in the outlaw drag racing arena, this new involvement with one of America’s big-three OEMs marks an important step in placing its unique wheels in front of a broader audience of potential street and strip customer.

Through a mutual relationship with Michigan-based Watson Engineering, Ford and RC Components were linked up, bringing to fruition the partnership to supply wheels for this highly sought after Cobra Jet.

“Ford saw our wheels in Watson’s shop and really liked the look and the quality and began asking about us,” RC’s Chris Cross shares. “The fact that our wheels are SFI-certified was also a selling point, but the wheels really caught their eye and it took off from there. They were impressed with the engineering of the wheels and because this was the 50th anniversary edition, they wanted to do something a little different, and the wheels were part of that.”

Cross adds,” it’s really an honor to be asked by Ford to present our wheels to them and work out the details to make the wheels for the Cobra Jet. To be able to work with an OEM on a limited production car, that has its own class, is a wonderful opportunity for us, and we feel that it could open a lot of doors for us as a brand. The Mustang has a huge following and the Cobra Jet is an iconic and highly visible part of that community, and this will put out wheels out there in front of those people. It’s truly a blessing to make wheels for such a well-known company.”

RC manufactured the wheel, based initially on the Torx design, to Ford’s specifications and added the aforementioned 50th anniversary Cobra Jet logos for its first run of the wheel, which was featured prominently on the white-and-gold 2018 Cobra Jet that was unveiled to the public in June.

Featuring a 5.2-liter version of Ford’s 5.0-liter Coyote production engine and mated with a 3.0-liter Whipple supercharger, the 2018 Cobra Jet will cover the 1/4-mile in just over 8-seconds at over 150 mph. In NHRA Factory Stock Showdown trim, the car is likely to break into the 7-second zone in the near future as Ford’s leading competitors push the brand to new performance heights.

In addition to its Comp Series of wheels — which includes both car and dragster fronts and beadlock and non-beadlock rears in a range of sizes and styles — RC Components also markets its new Street Fighter series of wheels, which feature many of the same cutting-edge designs in a form specific to street-and-strip applications.